Scientists uncover a cause for early 20th century Arctic warming

Since the 1970s the northern polar region has warmed faster than global averages by a factor or two or more, in a process of ‘Arctic amplification’ which is linked to a drastic reduction in sea ice.

But then how to explain a similar rapid warming that occurred during the early 20th century, when the effects of greenhouse gases were considerably weaker than today? And what can we prove about the period, given the scarcity of usable data and observations prior to the 1950s?

Now scientists from Kyoto University and UC San Diego have discovered that this phenomenon occurred when the warming phase — ‘interdecadal variability mode’ — of both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans coincided. The team’s findings appeared recently in the journal PNAS.

“We found that early 20th-century sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic had warmed much more than previously thought,” explains lead author Hiroki Tokinaga of Kyoto.

“Using observations and model simulations, we’ve demonstrated that rising Pacific-Atlantic temperatures were the major driver of rapid Arctic warming in the early 20th century.”

Previous explanations for early Arctic warming have including decreased volcanic aerosols and increased solar radiation, but none of these have been able to simulate observed conditions from the period.

Tokinaga’s team found that when the interdecadal rise in sea surface temperatures was included in simulation calculations, the results properly reflected early Arctic conditions.

“Coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations also support the intensification of Arctic warming,” continues Shang-Ping Xie of UCSD, “which was caused by a concurrent, cold-to-warm phase shift of Pacific and Atlantic interdecadal modes.”

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Comments (2)

Spurwing Plover

In the 60’s it was pestisides in the 1970’s it was polution in the 1980’s it was more polution in the 1990’s it was deforestdation and the rainforests in the 21’s Century its Climate Change and as always their coming with their hands out

David Lewis

The climate alarmists often point out an occurrence at the “first even” and reason to take drastic action on climate change. Many of these events were not the first ever but happened in the 1920’s. This includes ocean acidification where the pH in 1920 was lower than any time since. What is significant is this was before green house gasses built up to a level considered to be a problem.